Photo Printing? I've got questions, you've got answers.

[ZOOYUKA]

My my wife and I recently had our newborn's picture taken by a professional photographer. Now it is time for us to order pictures. There are so many that we like, ordering prints is kind of overwhelming.

The photographer has an option where you can buy the digital images from her on a disc. My wife and I have been considering this option, so we can print the pictures ourselves.

The photos are are the final edited product. What would be the pros and cons of us printing them? Are there any issues in going from a 4*6 to 5*7 or 8*10 photo? I've looked around and mpix.com has pro photo options. Are there any other sites to consider?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

 

[corkyg]

If you have a decent photo printer, there are really no serious cons unless you consider buying photo paper and printer ink a con. You can also get prints made from the disc at Costco, Walgreen's, and other places locally.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Costco

 

[ZOOYUKA]

If you have a decent photo printer, there are really no serious cons unless you consider buying photo paper and printer ink a con. You can also get prints made from the disc at Costco, Walgreen's, and other places locally.

I was planning on using the professional photo options that mpix offers. Have you had any experience with them?

 

[Lemon law]

To Zooyaka,

To start with, run don't walk to take the options of having the images burned to disk. While you are at it, get a extra back up disk and place it in a safe another place.

Second, as Corkyg points out, photopaper and the ink get in needed to print photos at home are expensive, not to mention the cost of really excellent photo printer. And while
almost all color inkjets claim to be photoprinters, a real photo printing inkjet will be at least five or more color. the run of the mill inkjet color printer will have four colors, a text only black not used in photo printing, and then the basic dye based colors of cyan, yellow, and magenta. If the cyan yellow and magenta and vended in the form of one single tri-color cartridge, basically you know such a printer will guzzle too much really over priced ink to be economical. The other downside of only three photocolors is that black backgrounds require the mixing together the three primary colors to get a muddy unattractive black. So a real photo printer, IMHO requires at least a true dye based photo black to get a minimal true photo photo printer. A true professional quality photo printer will have those 4 photo dye based colors plus up to 3 or 4 additional accent colors. Plus it will usually not have a any text black pigment based cartridge rendering it unsuitable for text printing. Then there is a rather steep learning curve, plus an almost requirement that the user refill their cartridges with third party inks and defeat the chips
now in almost all modern ink jet printers. Or its far more economical to use third party they print your photo's from a disk services.

For good discussions of where to learn and get up to speed on ALL those issues, google without the quotes "nifty stuff forums" or " Steves digicam forums" The other thing to mention is that refilling your own Canon or Epsom cartridges, or should I say inktanks is very easy, but with the printhead on the cartridge types typically found on Lexmarks and HP brands, refilling is hard and also may take very expensive professional equipment. Sadly the chips add an additional barrier. Thankfully I still have a working unchipped Canon that makes photoprinting easy and economical. And many swear the almost decade old i950 and i960 Canons are the best photo printers ever made. Built like tanks and some have over 80,000 pages on the original printhead.

 

[Gintaras]

Forget about Costco, CVS, Walgreens...

Get photos on disc and order prints from AdoramaPix - http://www.adoramapix.com
Who doesn't know, Adorama is a camera store in NYC with very good reputation, prolly same as B&H - also in NYC...
Very good quality and great service.
When you sign up, you get $15 credit. It's good first to try few photos to try on different papers: glossy, matte, lustre and metallic.
I did try first prints 4x6, a few photos printed on 4 types of paper. I like metallic. But it depends, photos looks different on different type of paper. Need to try first on small - 4x6 prints from given $15 credit...
Today I've received prints, I did try on larger sizes: few photos on 8x10 and a couple on 11x14.
Very good prices: 8x10 - $1.66(if more than 10 prints), 11x14 - $4.99.
8x10 @ CVS $6.99, I think and quality can't even compare to adorama prints.
They - AdoramaPix do have sales for photo prints time to time.

I've used before CVS printing service, don't even think to go there anymore to print photos

 

[ZetaEpyon]

I've also gotten prints from AdoramaPix and have been very happy with them. I got them on the lustre-finish paper, and really like it. Prints from my D70s look great (even up to 11x14 on a few).

My parents often get digital photos printed at Walgreens, and they seem decent enough for snapshots; haven't seen results on anything larger than a 4x6 though.

 

[rivan]

To Zooyaka,

To start with, run don't walk to take the options of having the images burned to disk. While you are at it, get a extra back up disk and place it in a safe another place.

:thumbsup:

 

[ronbo613]

As a professional photographer, there are two excellent points here.
First, back up all your digital photographs. Optical media is OK, but I prefer HD backups(maybe because DVDs don't hold that much). Anything is better than nothing. My photos are probably backed up on at least six different hard drives because they are so valuable to me. You can send your images to a pro photo lab on a thumb drive if you want.

Back to the point of this thread; if you want top quality prints, you need a top quality printer, ink and paper. I have an Epson Photo printer at home, even with photo paper, the results are terrible compared to a professional setup. If you have a great photo and you want a nice print that won't fade, just pay to have a print made. Cheaper than buying an expensive photo printer that will be obsolete before you use that pack of glossy photo paper you just bought.

 

[smitbret]

As a professional photograper..........

Back to the point of this thread; if you want top quality prints, you need a top quality printer, ink and paper. I have an Epson Photo printer at home, even with photo paper, the results are terrible compared to a professional setup. If you have a great photo and you want a nice print that won't fade, just pay to have a print made. Cheaper than buying an expensive photo printer that will be obsolete before you use that pack of glossy photo paper you just bought.

Bull.

I used to shoot photos for weddings, sporting events, graduations, family photos, etc. I am/was far from a professional photographer. I used a pair of Epson R260 photo printers for about 75% of my printing and I dare anyone to try and beat the print quality I got from them. The common difference is whether or not someone has taken the time to calibrate their equipment. Price was often prohibitive on smaller prints (3.5x5 or 4x6), so those were sent to Walgreens or mailed off to a lab. But on Epson Premium Luster and Premium Glossy Photo Paper, with the right color profiles and using Qimage I could easily compete with some of the best labs for anything up to 8x10 and it only cost about $1.50/print. I often thought about investing in an R1400 cuz then I could run through prints up to 11x14 and save about 90% on those, too.

Short form - If you have the patience and time to properly calibrate your scanner, monitor and printer, you can make prints that rival any professional lab with a sub-$100 printer.

 

[weez82]

Save yourself time and money (printers, ink and, paper) and use Adorama. Great site. I've used them for 16x20 and 11x14 and they all turned out great. And they offer great pricing. And stay away from Glossy prints, they look tacky. Use Lustre. And yes, get the photos on the disc and print them from Adorama

 

[Exterous]

Save yourself time and money (printers, ink and, paper) and use Adorama. Great site. I've used them for 16x20 and 11x14 and they all turned out great. And they offer great pricing. And stay away from Glossy prints, they look tacky. Use Lustre. And yes, get the photos on the disc and print them from Adorama

Do they compress your picture uploads? How do they compare to Mpix?

We just got back from ireland and I have some pictures I would like to get in 11x14 but I have never ordered pictures that large before and am concerned about quality issues (Is that even a valid concern?)

 

[Fardringle]

Bull.

I used to shoot photos for weddings, sporting events, graduations, family photos, etc. I am/was far from a professional photographer. I used a pair of Epson R260 photo printers for about 75% of my printing and I dare anyone to try and beat the print quality I got from them. The common difference is whether or not someone has taken the time to calibrate their equipment. Price was often prohibitive on smaller prints (3.5x5 or 4x6), so those were sent to Walgreens or mailed off to a lab. But on Epson Premium Luster and Premium Glossy Photo Paper, with the right color profiles and using Qimage I could easily compete with some of the best labs for anything up to 8x10 and it only cost about $1.50/print. I often thought about investing in an R1400 cuz then I could run through prints up to 11x14 and save about 90% on those, too.

Short form - If you have the patience and time to properly calibrate your scanner, monitor and printer, you can make prints that rival any professional lab with a sub-$100 printer.

I have an Artisan 50 (Epson's replacement for the R260) and while it does make nice prints and is convenient to have for "instant" photos, even with the proper color profiles and Epson's premium photo paper, it is still VERY obvious which photos come from that printer and which come from Adorama. Enough so that even my kids (4 and 7 years old) tell me that the lab prints look better.

 

[gar655]

+100 for Adorama. I ordered 2 16x20 headshots of my daughters on Kodak metallic and they are PHENOMENAL! And even with shipping to Hawaii they were like $25 total.

MUCH, MUCH better than anything I got a Costco. Costco is a cheapy solution. If you don't care about the color or quality have Costco do your prints. If you DO care about color and quality use a professional printing source.

 

[Gintaras]

Today I've received e-mail from Adorama, they have sale on 16x20 prints - $5.00, $6.00 - on metallic paper...

 

[Throckmorton]

You should probably get the disc anyway, because that way you have all the pics

 

[yhelothar]

To Zooyaka,

To start with, run don't walk to take the options of having the images burned to disk. While you are at it, get a extra back up disk and place it in a safe another place.

Second, as Corkyg points out, photopaper and the ink get in needed to print photos at home are expensive, not to mention the cost of really excellent photo printer. And while
almost all color inkjets claim to be photoprinters, a real photo printing inkjet will be at least five or more color. the run of the mill inkjet color printer will have four colors, a text only black not used in photo printing, and then the basic dye based colors of cyan, yellow, and magenta. If the cyan yellow and magenta and vended in the form of one single tri-color cartridge, basically you know such a printer will guzzle too much really over priced ink to be economical. The other downside of only three photocolors is that black backgrounds require the mixing together the three primary colors to get a muddy unattractive black. So a real photo printer, IMHO requires at least a true dye based photo black to get a minimal true photo photo printer. A true professional quality photo printer will have those 4 photo dye based colors plus up to 3 or 4 additional accent colors. Plus it will usually not have a any text black pigment based cartridge rendering it unsuitable for text printing. Then there is a rather steep learning curve, plus an almost requirement that the user refill their cartridges with third party inks and defeat the chips
now in almost all modern ink jet printers. Or its far more economical to use third party they print your photo's from a disk services.

For good discussions of where to learn and get up to speed on ALL those issues, google without the quotes "nifty stuff forums" or " Steves digicam forums" The other thing to mention is that refilling your own Canon or Epsom cartridges, or should I say inktanks is very easy, but with the printhead on the cartridge types typically found on Lexmarks and HP brands, refilling is hard and also may take very expensive professional equipment. Sadly the chips add an additional barrier. Thankfully I still have a working unchipped Canon that makes photoprinting easy and economical. And many swear the almost decade old i950 and i960 Canons are the best photo printers ever made. Built like tanks and some have over 80,000 pages on the original printhead.

All those points about a true quality photo printer is true. However, from my experience printing at CVS and kinkos, their prints are nowhere near the quality of a good photo inkjet printer.

I bought an HP Photosmart 7760 off craigslist new for $50 and it supports all those features you mention. So it doesn't really cost a lot even for a good photo printer.

I also managed to find a bundle of 3 genuine inks for $20 off ebay. There are lots of deals if you look around.

 

[HelenOster]

Save yourself time and money (printers, ink and, paper) and use Adorama. Great site. I've used them for 16x20 and 11x14 and they all turned out great. And they offer great pricing.

+100 for Adorama. I ordered 2 16x20 headshots of my daughters on Kodak metallic and they are PHENOMENAL! And even with shipping to Hawaii they were like $25 total.

Thanks so much for your great feedback, which I've passed over to the lab; I know that the AdoramaPix team will be really pleased!

BTW if you ever need advice or after-sales support with any order from Adorama, I'm only ever an email away: Helen@adorama.com

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

 

[smitbret]

I have an Artisan 50 (Epson's replacement for the R260) and while it does make nice prints and is convenient to have for "instant" photos, even with the proper color profiles and Epson's premium photo paper, it is still VERY obvious which photos come from that printer and which come from Adorama. Enough so that even my kids (4 and 7 years old) tell me that the lab prints look better.

Looks like you didn't calibrate your printer properly, then. The R260 is most definitely capable of prints that rival a pro lab. I can't tell you how many prints I have "improved" with Photoshop and my consumer grade R260.

This thread is annoying me. While it is valuable to have excellent photo professionals to draw info from, their opinions are skewed. The digital age has crushed many, many professional photographers. The ease at which a a customer can take a snapshot or scan and reprint, in obvious violation of copyright laws, has just about made it impossible to make a good living for anyone but the top 10% of photographers out there. The only way to fight back is to permeate the myth that the home user just can't make good, professional quality prints. It can be done, but it's not easy and I don't recommend it for average joe off the street.

Someone at home can print photos that will rival a professional photo lab. However, it requires knowledge, an investment beyond a basic AIO printer and time... lots and lots of time. If you are willing to spend the time to develop a good color workflow and will take the time to calibrate your monitor and develop the right .icc profiles for the scanner and printer then there's no reason that you couldn't go to Officemax and pick up all the supplies you need to make 11x14 prints that rival a photo lab. That's where the knowledge thing comes in; they won't know enough to get a calibration device or to have professional profiles created. Jane Doe doesn't know what color gamut or black point compression are. She won't even know that she doesn't know what they are.

What the public should know is that for 99% of the population it won't be worth the time or effort and it can be done more cheaply by a lab for anything but 8x10 and up. Anyone that prints more than a couple for 4x6 prints at home is crazy when you can have Walgreens do it for $.12 each.

So, that being said..... unless OP is willing to drop $1000 on an Epson 1400, a monitor that can be calibrated, a V500 scanner and wants to throw away $100 worth of ink and paper just to create a solid workflow for each ink/paper combination then he should just go to a lab. $1000 can buy a lot of work from a Pro. Adorama is awesome.

Except for a couple of exceptions, amateur's should NOT do black and white. I will take that one to the grave.

Cliff's:

1 - Pro photographers can have their own agendas. Be careful what advice you take on this topic.

2 - With a $1000 and 100 hours, someone at home can buy equipment at an office supply store and make prints at home that rival a lab

3 - It's far cheaper to have 4x6 done by a Walgreens or something similar. They're too small to see real results from a lab. 8x10 up is the only way to recoup any investment.

4 - B&W is best left to professionals

5 - Adorama has a great lab